Hot Docs Announces 2009 Documentary Award Winners

The true mark of a good film festival is going to see a myriad of films, really digging them, and then seeing a whole slew of others win the year's awards. It's a finely honed talent to miss all the award-winners, and yes, it can certainly be quite aggravating to always pick films that don't get the award love they deserve. However, it also means that there are too many goodies to choose from.

On Friday night, Hot Docs announced this year's award winners -- a group of excellent docs that were certainly buzzed about during the festival -- and once again, a whole slew of films I wasn't able to catch for you. Since the winners won't pop up in the dispatches I'll share with you all this week, read on to not only read what they are, but also what they're about, and any other information I can scrounge together. Check it all out after the jump.

Today, May 11, the Audience Award winner was also announced. Louie Psihoyos won the top spot with The Cove -- a look into the attempts to end dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. The rest of the audiences Top Ten: